Shrewsbury Town manager Gareth Ainsworth has labelled his team’s performance as ‘phenomenal’ after they secured a 2-1 win over Wrexham last night.
The Shropshire-based side are fighting for their lives towards the bottom of League One and began the day eight points from safety. They welcomed promotion chasing Wrexham to the Croud Meadow as huge underdogs but took the lead after just 17 minutes through John Marquis.
Shrewsbury’s advantage lasted just six minutes when Steven Fletcher equalised for the away side. However, they were gifted a lifeline shortly after half time when Marquis had the chance to grab his second of the game from the penalty spot. The striker saw his effort saved by Wrexham goalkeeper Arthur Okonkwo, but the 32-year-old followed up to tuck the ball home.
Ainsworth’s side saw out the game to pick up a huge three points, closing the gap on 20th-placed Bristol Rovers to five points.
Ainsworth Hails Shrewsbury Performance
The former Wycombe Wanderers boss couldn’t hide his delight following the game, telling official club media:
“It was absolutely phenomenal. The way the week’s been, for those boys to go out there and put that performance in tells me we have every chance of staying in this league.
“It was a phenomenal shift from everybody, it was optimised by those front two as they never stopped working and never stopped running.
“John (Marquis) deserved both of his goals, and (George) Lloyd deserved man of the match. They were absolutely brilliant, but they only do that because they know how solid they are behind them.
“The defenders were brilliant as well, and we had a plan in place, and it worked well.
“Wrexham had to change a couple of formations and we changed again to match them.
“All of the talk before the game was about if Wrexham won, they go top of the league; nobody said that if Shrewsbury win, they might go above Crawley.”
Writer’s View
It was a stunning result for Shrewsbury and one that has given them a fighting chance of staying in League One. Ainsworth is rightly delighted with the performance of his team, and they must take that into their next game away at Charlton Athletic. As for Wrexham, they have now won just two of their last 10 away fixtures. This is an area they really must improve on if they are to have any chance of securing promotion.
